CHAPTER 1: Enough

Lima OH, June 5, 2002

Elisabeth Hummel sat on the living room couch, looking at her watch for what felt like the twentieth time within the last ten minutes. It was approaching eleven pm, but her husband Burt was still out. For the fifth time in just the last two weeks, she was waiting for him to come home. The excuses were always the same – having to work late and watching a game with his work buddies at the local sport's bar. Other women might have suspected an affair, but Elisabeth knew that Burt was truthful – at least about his whereabouts. His reasons for avoiding spending time at home she could only guess.

At ten past eleven she finally heard Burt's truck pull into the driveway. Instead of greeting him at the front door, like she had done in the past, she remained in the living room of their small, but homey house. When he saw her sitting there, he seemed surprised. "You didn't have to wait up for me Lizzy, I told you I had to work late." Elisabeth scoffed. Work late my ass.

When she finally answered she sounded tired. "I can't do it anymore Burt." "What do you mean?" "I didn't sign up to be a single mom but lately it feels like that's what I've become." "Lizzy, you know I'm working late for us. I need to save up enough money so I can open my own garage." "What I need is for you to be here, with us!" Elisabeth told him exasperatedly. "But all you do is find excuses so you won't have to spend time with your family."

Burt didn't know what to say to that. Mostly because what his wife was saying was true. He did spend all his time at the garage and Woody's, because he just didn't know how to deal with his son anymore. His son, who refused to play any sports, but demanded tap dance lessons instead. His son, who wanted tea parties instead of spending time with him when he worked on cars. His son, who had to have his room moved to the basement because the one upstairs didn't have a big enough closet.

He did love his family; he just didn't understand any of it. He didn't understand where he had gone wrong. So he distanced himself. Found excuses to stay away. Elisabeth was staring at him, obviously waiting for his answer. He decided to play dumb, because he knew if he really said what was on his mind, it would only cause a fight, not just an argument about coming home late.

"I don't know what you mean. I'm not avoiding you. And we both know that Kurt rather spends his time with you." That at least was true. "Because I'm not trying to change him. Force him into things he doesn't want!" "How can he possibly know what he wants – he just turned nine!" By now they had both raised their voices, but not loud enough to wake Kurt.

Elisabeth took a deep breath. She couldn't believe what she was about to do, but she hadn't been lying when she told him earlier she couldn't do it anymore. "Burt, if you can't be a proper father to your son and a carrying husband for me, I'd rather you not be a father and husband at all."

For a few seconds, Burt just stared at her in shock. Did she mean what he thought she meant. She wouldn't. "What's that supposed to mean?" "It means, either you're part of this family – a real part – or you're not. If you can't do that, I want you to move out. Parents get divorced all the time. Kurt knows that. What I can't have is him thinking his dad is never here because he doesn't love him."

"I do love you both," Burt protested weakly. He didn't want to lose his family, but in his heart he knew that he'd already lost them some time ago. Still, he couldn't help but be angry. How dare his wife give him an ultimatum? After everything he had done for his family. "Fine. You want me gone. I'll leave. Uncle Frank's been offering me a partnership in his garage down in Austin for some time now. Maybe it's time to take him up on the offer."

"Burt." "No! You're right. I need a change of scenery. I'll be gone in the morning." "Burt," Elisabeth tried again, but Burt brushed her off and stormed out of the house. Shortly after she heard the truck come to life and the car speeding away.

Elisabeth sank back down onto the couch and for the first time in month allowed herself to cry. What would happen to them now? Had she overreacted? The pitter-patter of tiny feet on the stairs made her look up and quickly wipe away the tears. "Mom", a voice asked from the stairs.

Elisabeth quickly got back into mom mode. What's wrong honey? Did you have a bad dream." "No, I heard you and dad talking down here. Why are you crying?" A small for his age, recently turned nine year old cautiously approached the couch. He was wearing Power Rangers pajamas and his brown hair was hanging into his eyes.

"I'm sorry honey. We didn't want to wake you up. Come on, let's go back to bed. I'll sing you to sleep if you want." Kurt shook his head. He wanted to know why his mom had been crying and why his dad had run out of the house in the middle of the night. One of his friend's parents were divorced and she had told him that they had been fighting all the time before it happened.

"Are you and dad going to get a divorce? Elisabeth honestly didn't know how to answer that question. She had told Burt to leave, but other than that they hadn't talked about what that would really mean. Burt had run out before they could talk some more, She decided to be honest. Kurt was mature for his age, even though he looked more like a six year old than a newly nine year old.

" I don't know, You're dad and I don't like each other very much at the moment, so we're going to spend some time apart to figure everything out okay." "Is it because of me? Because I can try harder liking the things dad wants me to like. I can give baseball another try or play with the toy cars he got me."

Before he could ramble on, Elisabeth quickly interrupted him. "Honey, no. This has nothing to do with you, alright? And I don't want you to pretend to like things you don't. You are just perfect the way you are, okay?" "Okay. Can you sing me a song now? I'm tired."

Elisabeth was relived she didn't have to continue this conversation right now. She smiled at her son, took his hand and walked him back down stairs to his basement bedroom. Once he was all tucked in, she asked, "Now, what shall it be, kind sir," earning her a chuckle from Kurt. "Can you sing Castle on a Cloud?" "Of course honey." Kurt fell asleep before she had even finished the first verse. She didn't know what the next morning would bring, but at least her son was sleeping peacefully again. There was nothing more she could do that night, so she decided to go to bed as well and try to get at least some sleep.

June 6, 2002

Burt had been driving around aimlessly after his storm out. His first instinct had been to go back to the bar and get hammered, but he needed a clear head if he wanted to figure things out and crashing his car because he was drunk was the last thing he needed after the day he had. He knew he should just go home, beg his wife for forgiveness and be a better father and husband. A better man would have done just that. But twenty-nine year old Burt Hummel was not a better man. He was a proud man.

He had been quarter back in high school and played football in junior college until he had busted his knee. Shortly after, his girlfriend Lizzy had announced that she was pregnant and so Burt ditched his sport's career, got a job at a local garage and made Lizzy an honest woman. Back than, people had told him he was too young to get married and raise a child, but he had just scoffed at them. Now he was wondering if they hadn't been right. He was not cut out to be a father, at least not for a child as unique as Kurt.

Elisabeth has offered him a way to get out, to go after his dream, and because twenty-nine year old Burt Hummel was not a better man, he intended to take it.

It was close to five o'clock in the morning when he returned to his now former home. Quietly he went inside, got his suitcase from the spare room that had been Kurt's bedroom and was now used for storage and crept into his wife's bedroom. Careful not to wake his soon to be ex-wife, he opened the closet and slowly emptied his side of the closet.

By seven o'clock he was all packed and ready to leave. For a moment he considered to just leave without saying goodbye, but he just couldn't do that. He might be a bad father, but he was no deadbeat dad, who ran out on his family in the middle of the night. He had to do the right thing here and face his family head on. He had just started the coffee machine when Elisabeth entered the kitchen.

"I see you're all packed. You didn't plan to just leave without saying anything to Kurt did you? Because I explained as much as I could to him last night, but I'm sure he wants to at least have the chance to say a proper goodbye."

"Of course not. I would never do that to you." Now was his chance to ask for forgiveness. But he didn't. Instead he just watched the coffee machine, avoiding eye contact with his wife. "Where will you stay," she asked after a few minutes had gone by and neither had spoken. "I'm going to stay with my buddy from the tux rental place for a couple of days until everything is sorted out with my uncle." " What about Kurt. Texas isn't just around the corner."

"You can have full custody." At that, Elisabeth looked relieved. "And I'm going to send you money for him. Elisabeth nodded. "And if it's okay with you I could come up and visit for like Christmas and stuff, " Burt trailed of unsure what else to say. Luckily Elisabeth interrupted him. "Of course you can. I don't want you out of Kurt's life completely. He needs to know his father does want to see him."

As if he could sense that his future was being discussed right now, Kurt entered the kitchen at that moment. For a moment he looked confused, but than he spotted the bags next to the kitchen counter. "Are you leaving dad," he asked in a small voice. Burt felt a pang when he looked at his way too small son, but he had made up his mind. This was for the best.

"Yeah buddy. You're great uncle Frank is getting pretty old and he needs some help in his shop, so I have offered to help him out a bit." Burt trailed of again. His son wasn't stupid. He knew his dad wasn't just leaving for a while. "Okay. Will you come visit us?" He sounded so small when he asked that Burt's heart nearly broke.

"I'll come visit all the time. I'm only a plane ride away. And maybe you can come visit me too. They have horses there, you know." Kurt frowned. "I don't like horses. They stink and get your clothes dirty."

Burt sighed. Why had he even expected a different answer? The kitchen became quiet again. Burt filled some coffee into a travel mug and cleared his throat awkwardly. "Well, better be off. I have a lot of things to take care of today." With that he quickly ruffled his son's hair before he could complain, dropped a kiss onto Lizzy's cheek and grabbed his bags.

Before the remaining occupants of the kitchen had time to realize what was happening, they heard the front door close and the truck start up in the driveway. When Elisabeth looked over to her son, she saw that he was about to start crying. She quickly scoped him up into her arms and pressed him close. "It's going to be okay," she murmured. "We're going to be alright. I promise you, honey."

Next up: Elisabeth deals with being a single mom.